


Building a New Tradition

by firefly124



Series: 2020 AdventDrabbles [16]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU in which 15x19 made sense and 15x20 never happened, Background Castiel/Dean Winchester - Freeform, Community: adventdrabbles, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28318302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefly124/pseuds/firefly124
Summary: Now that she and Sam have a house, there’s an old Christmas tradition Eileen would like to revive, if only it were practical.
Relationships: Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Series: 2020 AdventDrabbles [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050380
Kudos: 5





	Building a New Tradition

**Author's Note:**

> Written to the prompt [paper lanterns](https://imgur.com/a/1X9biCT) for the [AdventDrabbles community on Dreamwidth](https://adventdrabbles.dreamwidth.org).

Eileen’s aunt had had a tradition of placing paper lanterns along the walkway up to the front door on Christmas eve. They were never expecting company that would need their way lit to the door, but still, they filled little white paper bags with a scoop of sand, placed tea lights inside, and used a fireplace match to light them. It was a tradition Eileen hadn’t kept in years, but having a house now meant she really wanted to resurrect it.

With her and Sam’s Irish wolfhound, never mind Dean and Cas’ Miracle, that would end badly.

So, she’d resigned herself to keeping that tradition as a fond memory. Sam had agreed that even without Miracle around to rile him up, Saoirse would almost certainly get into trouble with live flames looking like toys, though he’d looked very intrigued by the idea. He’d also looked at her, concerned, when his brother had cut through the strand of Christmas tree lights he and the angel had become tangled in. That wasn’t a particularly important tradition to her, though, and anyway, there had been several strands of lights chained together. One fewer wouldn’t make that big of a difference. 

She shouldn’t have been surprised, then, when Sam talked her into stepping outside after dinner. When he opened the door, it was to a walkway lit brightly by Chinese paper lanterns hung high enough that the dogs were unlikely to get at them. They were also lit with fairy lights, not candles. It was both nothing like her aunt’s tradition and yet so perfectly like it that she found tears welling in her eyes.

“Thank you, Sam,” she said before pulling him into a kiss.

“You like it?” he asked when they broke for air.

“I love it.” She looked at the lanterns again. “Next year, we should hang them before everyone comes. Light their way home for Christmas.”

“We will.” He smiled at her. “That’ll be our tradition.”


End file.
